125th anniversary of Vladimir Favorsky

March 15, 2011 is the 125th anniversary of Vladimir Favorsky, outstanding artist, graphic, art theorist, and master of prints and book design. Vladimir Favorsky trained several generations of Soviet artists, both in monumental painting and graphic and virtually created the Soviet school of engraving. Most of his own works are wood engravings. In these Favorsky generated main principles of composition, distribution of forms and their balance on the plate, as well as developed basic techniques of stroke and methods of creating a silhouette. Dedicated to art theory and analysis, Vladimir Favorsky was concerned with architectural principles of drawing, enabling the artist to embrace the natural realistic forms and to make them to powerful symbols. Hence the poets of Symbolism and Art Nouveau were Favorsky’s soul mates, and he was also interested in Avant-garde innovations.

In the field of book design Favorsky created a special theory, including composition theory, theory of graphics and theory of the book. He grasps the nature of the book as an aesthetic entity, "a tool for reading”, where form is united with function and logic develops in time: through the composition of two-page spread, recurrent rhythms, placement and combination of illustrations, ornament and decoration. Vladimir Favorsky worked in various genres and different styles, but always remained instantly recognizable, distinguished by the vivid character of his images and lucid and thoughtful compositions.